We’ll ditch human rights laws, say ministers

David Cameron was urged on Sunday night to get a grip of the Conservatives’
response to the Eastleigh by-election amid signs that his ministers were
challenging Downing Street’s insistence that the party must not “lurch to
the Right”.

David Cameron was urged on Sunday night to get a grip of the Conservatives’ response to the Eastleigh by-election amid signs that his ministers were challenging Downing Street’s insistence that the party must not “lurch to the Right”. Photo: AP

The Justice Secretary and Home Secretary indicated on Sunday that Britain would scrap human rights laws – and possibly even leave the European Court for Human Rights – if the Conservatives won the next election. The likely pledges, along with others promising a ban on newly arrived foreigners using the NHS, appeared to sit uncomfortably with the Prime Minister’s warning that the Conservatives must be fixed to the “common ground of politics”.

A Conservative MP accused some ministers of being on “manoeuvres” as speculation mounted that Mr Cameron may face a leadership challenge before the next general election.

The Prime Minister is under growing pressure to address the electoral threat posed by Ukip – who beat the Conservatives into an embarrassing third place in last week’s Eastleigh by-election – by unveiling more measures on immigration, tax and Europe. He faces accusations that the party is being run by a metropolitan elite which does not understand the concerns of ordinary Britons but instead appears obsessed with “fringe” issues such as gay marriage and green energy.

However, in an article for The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Cameron appeared to rule out a change in strategy, writing: “The battle for Britain’s future will not be won in lurching to the Right, nor by some cynical attempt to calculate the middle distance between your political opponents and then planting yourself somewhere between them.”

But Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, said that a future Conservative government would scrap the Human Rights Act. There were also reports that Theresa May, the Home Secretary, wishes to go even further and remove Britain from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.

The pledges were welcomed by the growing number of MPs who have been demanding a strong policy response to the Eastleigh loss.

However, others warned that much of the problem was “mixed messages” being given to voters and that legislative pledges on Europe, immigration and human rights were meaningless without action. Michael Fabricant, a vice-chairman of the party who was closely involved in the Eastleigh campaign, said: “The irony is that many of the appealing policies promoted by Ukip are already Conservative ones. But people don’t realise this because of mixed messaging.”

Mark Field, a Conservative MP, accused his party’s leadership of incoherence. “About this idea of veering to the Right – we’ve tried it,” he said. “We had a speech from David Cameron about Europe which was supposed to have killed Ukip’s fox. It did nothing of the sort. Theresa May and Chris Grayling, perhaps they’re on manoeuvres of their own of some description. But the idea of getting out of the European Court of Human Rights – we are in government at the moment: either do something now in the next two years and call the Lib Dems’ bluff on this, or stay quiet. It’s not panic, but I think it’s incoherence at the top. The voters are not fools.”

Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, said that many voters were switching to his party because they did not believe in the pledges made by the Conservatives, rather than the policies themselves.